Taking place onboard the MSC Virtuosa on 27-30 May, Travel Village Group put on a range of sessions covering topics such as email etiquette, words and phrases that turn off customers, and body language.

Run by customer relations specialist Debbee Dale, director at Debbee Dale Developments, she told the room of agents that for customers, reliability and trustworthiness were the most important traits for agents to possess.

She said two to three years ago the highest-rated traits were professionalism and possession of knowledge.

Dale said this was changed by the pandemic, which had “shifted customers’ priorities”.

When it came to vocabulary, Dale advised to avoid using the words and phrases “unfortunately; I’m afraid; uncertain; and that’s impossible”.

She said: “They connote a negative image; these are holidays, not funerals, so it’s important to remember that when it comes to tone and language."

Dale added that the words were filler and conveyed the agent wasn’t confident which meant the customer may go in search of an agent that they felt was more assured and optimistic.

The words and phrases she advised agents to use frequently were, “assure; I am here to help; I will; I am certain; and do you have any questions”.

Understanding customer tone was also important according to Dale.

“A high-pitched or low-pitched voice could mean a customer is upset, rushed or uncomfortable,” she said.

She stressed the importance of personalised attention saying it “doesn’t matter if you’ve had 10 identical calls". 

For ending phone calls Dale said to say “feel free to contact me” as opposed to “do not hesitate” as she said agents should not be implying their clients needed to be hesitant.

“If a customer says ‘thank you’ say ‘you’re welcome’, or ‘my pleasure’, don’t say ‘no problem’ because a client will remember and subconsciously hold you to that promise, which will be broken once a problem comes up,” she said.